Defense is the focus on Day 1 of Charge training camp

The Charge opened practice Thursday for their third season in Canton. The team has less than two weeks to whittle the 17-player training camp roster down to 10 for the regular season.

BY Josh WeirRepository sports writer

Day 1 of Camp Hetzel is in the books.

The tone so far is a familiar one for the Canton Charge, even if it is being set by a different person.

The Charge opened practice Thursday for their third season in Canton. The team has less than two weeks to whittle the 17-player training camp roster down to 10 for the regular season.

Along the way, new head coach Steve Hetzel will preach a message the Charge know well:

Defense, defense and more defense.

“The whole practice today, three hours, was straight defense,” said forward Tyrell Biggs, who begins his second tour of duty with the Charge after playing in Canton during the 2011-12 season. “(Coach Hetzel) told me before we started, before I even stepped on the court, that we’re going to be one of the best defensive teams in the D-League.”

If that proves to be so, it will be a continuation of former head coach Alex Jensen’s work.

Last year, the Charge led the NBA Development League in points allowed per game (96.0) and opponents’ 3-point percentage (30.3), while ranking third in opponents’ field goal percentage (43.8).

After spending Thursday hedging on screens and working on defensive spacing at Edgewood Community Center, Biggs said of Hetzel, “He’s into details just like Jensen.”

Those details led Canton to the East Division title and Jensen to the D-League Coach of the Year award last season.

Hetzel said the Charge spent an hour Thursday doing four-on-four defensive shell drills, followed by another hour of one-on-one drills.

“They emphasized multiple efforts, what we call trapping the box,” Hetzel said. “It’s just about making sure the paint gets protected. In each of our one-on-one drills, they had to do multiple efforts, from trapping the box, to closing out, to playing their man one-on-one.”

From there it was some live two-on-two and then a rotating four-on-four game to finish the day. The game wasn’t scored on points.

It was scored on defensive stops. First team to seven stops won.

Hetzel believes the message was received.

“They are very attentive,” he said. “When we went live four-on-four, you could see things translating. They were talking. The biggest thing to me is the communication amongst the players and their ability to be early rather than late to help.”

The work was not easy.

Biggs received stim treatment on his calf muscle and iced his knees as he spoke.

Guard Antoine Agudio, beginning his third season in Canton, said he comes into camp this year in much better shape than last year, when he was hampered by an ankle injury. The 6-foot-3 Agudio said he’s about 213 pounds now after being 230 last year at this time.

“Last year, if I had come in and done this (work) I probably would have passed out,” he said with a laugh.

The 33-year-old Hetzel, a former student manager for Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, has spent the past eight years in the NBA working in video and player development.

Stepping on the court Thursday as a head coach was something special for the Allen Park, Mich. native.

“It was a great feeling being a first-time head coach,” Hetzel said. “I’ve seen eight years of training camp, but you’re never the one that’s blowing the whistle and directing traffic.

“... You never know if you’re ready until you jump in and do it. I thought today went really well.

“But we have a long way to go. We can’t be pleased with ourselves. We have to show up tomorrow and do the same.”

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